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Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Dev 2K Australia Closes

If you dug Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, you’ll be sad to know that the studio behind it — 2K Australia — will be closing down.

Originally reported on by Kotaku AU and then confirmed by 2K, the Canberra-based studio is the last AAA developer out of Australia, with all staff members said to lose their jobs. It seems the cost of operating out of Australia was the reason for the closure, and not due to its latest release — Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel — not meeting expectations.

Additionally, sources close to the matter mentioned that, at one point, a move to Melbourne was in the cards to help attract new talent to the studio. Allegedly, this caused some high-level members of 2K Australia to leave, which might have factored into parent company 2K’s decision to shut the studio down.

2K gave an official statement confirming the studio closure, which you can read below.

We can confirm we have taken steps to begin the studio closure process for 2K Australia in order to better manage ongoing development costs while improving the working proximity of our creative teams. We are very grateful for the team’s valuable contributions to numerous 2K projects, and are working with affected staff to explore reassignment opportunities where possible.

Aside from The Pre-Sequel, 2K Australia also worked on BioShock 2, and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

Hopefully, those affected find jobs very soon and we wish them all the best.